DCC group delivers holiday meals

(Poughkeepsie) - Families receiving services from Grace Smith House are enjoying holiday meals this year with the help of student and faculty organizations from Dutchess Community College .

On November 21, Thanksgiving dinner turkeys and all the fixings were delivered to Grace Smith House courtesy of DCC’s chapter of Alpha Beta Gamma, a national honor society for business students. The donation was spearheaded for the second year in a row by Victor Green, a nontraditional student in DCC’s Business Administration program.

“We’ve purchased $500 of Thanksgiving materials,” said Green. “That’s 18 turkeys, 100 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of stuffing, 35 to 40 pounds of mixed vegetables, 20 pounds cranberry sauce, and pies.”

The items were distributed to 15 families living in transitional apartments managed by Grace Smith House to prepare their individual family meals, as well as used for Thanksgiving meals in Grace Smith’s battered women’s shelters in Poughkeepsie and Northeast, according to Deborah Palladino, Director of Residential Services at Grace Smith.

On December 14, DCC’s chapter of the American Association of Women in Community Colleges (AAWCC) will sponsor the annual Holiday party for Grace Smith House families. The College group has been organizing the event since 1998 and annually draws 15 to 20 members of DCC’s faculty and staff to help prepare and serve the meal for 100 to 150 women and children whose families have received services throughout the year. “These are wonderful women. Some of them are amazingly strong, and it’s good to see families together laughing and enjoying the holidays,” said event organizer Ellen Wild, Chairperson of DCC’s Early Education program.

DCC Early Childhood Education Club also participates in the event by providing developmentally appropriate activities for the children. In addition, the AAWCC collects donations of gifts for young children, pre-teens, and teens. After the party, mothers can choose the unwrapped gift most appropriate for their child for Christmas morning gift-giving.
Connecting with Grace Smith House is just one way members of the DCC Community support the larger community in the holiday season.

Dutchess Community College staff and other Dutchess County CSEA employees are conducting the 16th annual toy drive for more than four hundred families in Dutchess County . New, unwrapped toys can be delivered to DCC’s switchboard in the Student Services Center through December 14.

Dutchess United Educators (DUE) has adopted five families from the Colleges Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), and the EOP and Disabilities Services Offices have created a mitten tree for their needy students and children.
Student- supported charitable drives include the Student Government Association’s recently completed coat drive for Dutchess Outreach, a food drive sponsored by the SGA and DCC’s Business Club, an eyeglass drive sponsored by Alpha Beta Gamma in association with the Lions Club, and Operation Christmas Child sponsored by DCC’s Christian Fellowship Club. Pictured Above: Deborah Palladino, Director of Nonresidential Services at Grace Smith House, and DCC Student Victor Green, a member of the Business Honor Society Alpha Beta Gamma.